S-Video doesn't work properly [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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duvallite
07-22-2005, 09:11 AM
The S-Video picture that I get from my DVD player is so distorted that you can just barely tell there is some type of picture there. I have a Denon AVR-3300, new and never used, that the DVD player is connected to at the S-Video input connector for DVD, with the DVD player labeled in the 3300 as coax, and the S-Video output of the 3300 is connected to my TV. The S-Video cable works fine when the DVD player is connected directly to my TV, and I get a great picture, so it would seem the cable itself is okay. I also have a VHS-VCR connected to the VCR input side of the 3300 using a composite cable, which then is connected to my TV from the composite out connection at the 3300. The VCR works fine, and I get a very nice picture. Could the problem be that I can't use both the S-video and Composite outputs of the 3300, and that everything (video connections) has to be either S-Video or Composite, but not both? If this is the case, then the 3300 must default to Composite, and that is why my VCR works. I guess another thing could be that there is something wrong with the 3300's S-Video circuitry, but I really hope that is not the case. The darn Denon people won't respond to my email, so hopefully someone here can help me out. Any suggestions?

PAT.P
07-22-2005, 11:17 AM
duvalite Did you do input/output assigment on your receiver ?Its usally what I have to do when I had a input on my receiver(Yamaha)Pat.P

N. Abstentia
07-22-2005, 01:49 PM
Yes I'd say you hit it when you said you can't use composite and s-video at the same time. It's either or. Run an s-video cable from the output of the 3300 to your TV and see if that fixes it. You might even be able to keep using your composite VCR as it may upsample but there's no way it will downsample and send s-video through composite.

Worst case is that you'll just replace the VCR with an s-vhs model..or even better a DVD recorder :)

Woochifer
07-22-2005, 03:12 PM
Try disconnecting the VCR first. Then you should try swapping the S-video cable and just toggling around the connection to make sure that the connector's not loose.

If the picture's still the same, then you should try connecting a composite video output from the DVD player. If the picture is similarly blotchy with a composite video connection, then it sounds like a problem with how your receiver handles the Macrovision copy protection encoding that's present on most DVDs, because the symptoms you describe sound exactly like what the picture looks like if you route the video signal from a DVD player through a VCR. If that's the case, then you're outta luck.

A Denon AVR-3300 "new and never used"? Hard to find since that particular model got discontinued almost five years ago.

duvallite
07-22-2005, 03:32 PM
Thanks for the responses. I'll give those things a try tomorrow and see what happens. Worst case scenario, I can just end up running the DVD video directly to the TV instead of using the Denon to switch. I'll post a follow-up after I do my testing. As to the 3300 being new and unused, I originally bought it new a few years ago when they were still an active product model, and due to some unfortunate circumstances, it wound up with an ex :rolleyes: and I just recently got it back, still in it's packaging. A very nice surprise for me :D

If anyone else has more thoughts on the video problem, feel free to chime in. Thanks
.

N. Abstentia
07-22-2005, 05:51 PM
I strongly feel I've figured out your problem :)

I'm willing to bet that you just simply can't send an s-video signal through a composite cable like you're trying to do. That model may do upconversion (might send composite out through s-video) but not vice versa.

Replace the composite cable going from your receiver to the TV with an s-video and watch it work.

Wooch is also right though...if that does not work go composite from the DVD player and see if it goes away.

duvallite
07-25-2005, 02:56 PM
Well, after swapping everything and trying different combinations with no success, I had come to the conclusion that my Pioneer Elite DV-05 dvd player must have some compatability problem with the Denon 3300, since the dvd player would still work fine if connected directly to the TV. Decided to keep it that way. I pushed everything back into the cabinet, and tried it again, and the d**n picture was toast again. To make this story short, it turned out that the s-video cable had a intermittent signal problem at the connector going to the 3300 / tv. Glad I finally found it. Thanks for everyone's input.